We’d been looking at houses for sale in the area for about a week, and figured we’d seen all the options available, at least the ones to which our real estate agent had access. We had learned that in France, there is no Multiple Listing Service, like there is in the U.S., so you are pretty much limited to whatever listings a particular real estate agency has in their control. We had seen other houses listed online, but the agents were not local companies and even when I wrote to the listing agent for more information, I received no response. I guess they aren’t that interested in selling houses. We were also confused by the fact that we had sometimes seen the same houses listed by more than one company, with different listing prices, photos and descriptions.

We were starting to wonder if we were not going to have that “This is it!” moment when walking into a house, and were beginning to re-think the houses we’d already seen in the hopes that we could find some glimmer of a gem among them. Then, our local friend, who knows a good number of the folks living in Le Grand-Pressigny, received a call from a friend of hers saying that the house next door to her was for sale by owner. We immediately went off to investigate the house.

Hmmm. It was right in the middle of the village. Check. From the outside it looked large enough to be at least 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. Check. And it definitely had charm. Check. Things were looking promising for this one. We called the owners and made an appointment to see it the next day. 

Our first glimpse of it. :::cue the goosebumps:::

This may look like an old mess to you, but I think we fell in love even before we entered that green gate. So, since it was for sale by owner, we figured we’d be meeting the owner there. It turns out there are 11 owners — the 11 siblings who grew up there. In this two bedroom house, including the parents, that would be 13 people. Wow. That first visit we met four of the 11 siblings. They don’t speak English and we don’t (yet) speak French, so we were fortunate to have our pal Connie with us to handle the translation.

What lovely people they were. They were so friendly and eager to show us their house. We were first led around the outside area. I was tickled that there were chicken and rabbit coops next to the house, a big old pump, and a large back yard.

While we were standing in the middle of the big yard behind the house, we turned and looked back toward the house. OMG, there’s the chateau right above us!

This was exciting. Now we were really eager to see the inside of the house. Let me just say that I have seen enough House Hunters International episodes to know that you have to look past many of the cosmetic things like paint colors, wallpaper and flooring, and focus on the potential, like whether it has good bones and sufficient room sizes. So, feeling prepared for anything, we stepped inside.

Here are a few pictures of the inside of the house, which has been vacant for a few years.

OK, so not the best, but certainly not bad. We could see this one had good bones, and was definitely worth considering. I think if we hadn’t already seen quite a few other houses in the area, we might not have realized the potential in this one. And this house had location, location, location going for it too. It was just a few steps from the main street with a butcher shop, town square, hotel, bakery, bar/cafe, market, post office, just about anything you would need. We were intrigued. Stay tuned for what happens next!